The Minister of Economy of the Community of Madrid, Javier Fernandez-Lasquettyhas pointed out that since Pedro Sánchez governs he has not stopped lowering investments in the Community of Madrid and, as part of his argument, Lasquetty compared the investment activity of the central and regional governments.
In a press conference after the Governing Council, the counselor stated that “what the Government delegate proclaims is false; in Madrid it is the Community of Madrid that invests and there is the Zendal Hospital, there is the metro line 3, there is the enormous expansion and renovation of the October 12 Hospital; there are the 30 new schools and institutes that are being built, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera”, (from min. 22:18).
However, at least three of the works to which Lasquetty refers have not been paid for by the investments of the Community of Madrid, such as the Zendal Hospital, for which covid funds distributed by Moncloa among the autonomous communities were used, or as Line 3 of the metro, for which resources from the European Recovery Fund are planned to be allocated.
The Zendal Hospital was paid for with State covid funds and not with investments from the Community of Madrid
During question time, Lasquetty was questioned about this statement (as of min. 38:11), specifically, about the construction of the “pandemic hospital”, as defined by the Community of Madrid itself. The counselor refused to answer the journalist who asked him to clarify whether the hospital was paid for with state funds: “As I have said, the funds we received from the State were not enough to cover all the covid expenses generated in the year 2020 or in the year 2021, included among that expense the construction of the Hospital Enfermera Isabel Zendal”.
But the construction of the Zendal Hospital was covered by the covid funds non-reimbursable funds that the State made available to the autonomous communities to cover the expenses derived from the pandemic.
According to him TreasuryIn 2020, the Government delivered a total of 3,346 million euros to the Community of Madrid through the covid fund. This figure is the largest of the transfers made by the State to the autonomous communities, above what Catalonia (3,165 million) or Andalusia (2,198 million) received. Expenditure in the Community of Madrid amounted to 3,500 million euros, according to the regional report on the management of the COVID-19 fund; that is, the covid fund covered 95.6% of the expenses reported by the community.
The Zendal was inaugurated on December 1, 2020 and its original budget was €51.7 millionaccording to the community itself. The figure ended up tripling and reached €153 millionaccording to Lasquetty.
It was the counselor who stated that the investment necessary to build the Zendal was taken from the Government’s covid funds, as stated in a press release on March 4, 2021. He has also confirmed it the Community of Madrid itself in other communications, such as the one of October 1, 2020, in which he remarked that “the hiring of health personnel, the purchase of protection material or the construction of the Isabel Zendal hospital” are “among the main projects financed”.
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The expansion of Metro line 3 and the reform of the Hospital 12 de Octubre were paid for with European funds
Although the expenses of the extension of the Metro and the reforms of the Hospital 12 de Octubre have not been covered by the funds of the central Government, nor have they been a consequence of the investments of the Community of Madrid as Lasquetty states.
The extension of line 3 of the Madrid Metro to Getafe −which the regional government began in February and plans to finish in 2023− has been launched thanks to the arrival of European funds from the Next Generation EU programme, a set of investments to reactivate the European economy after the pandemic. This is reflected in the Strategy for the recovery and resilience of the Community of Madrid and the Ministry of Transport has also confirmed it to Newtral.es.
On page 79 of the report, an investment of 3,772 million euros is specified for the “improvement of the transport offer”. Among the projects that are included, “the construction of a new branch of line 8 is proposed, as well as the extension of lines 3 and 5”.
In addition, in the section dedicated to the “sustainability of medical and hospital centers”, there are 1,159 million euros allocated to different actions. One of those included in the list is the reform of the Hospital 12 de Octubre, which the region started last year and which is scheduled to end in 2024.
As the document cites, “deep reforms will be carried out in the La Paz Hospital, the Gregorio Marañón Hospital and the October 12 Hospital with demolitions and construction of blocks, as well as the complete renovation of all the hospital facilities” (p.44). The Ministry of Health has informed Newtral.es that the funds for the October 12 project have been advanced by the Community of Madrid and “once the works are completed with the corresponding certificate”, they will receive European resources through the central government.
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The 30 new schools and institutes that the Community of Madrid is building are paid for by money from the autonomy
The Community of Madrid announced in January 156 million euros in investments for new public educational infrastructure in 2022. Specifically, the regional Executive announced that it would build and expand 38 schools and institutes with 10,220 new public places. “The Community of Madrid will invest 156 million euros in new public educational infrastructure in 2022 after increasing its endowment by 75% compared to last year,” it says in the press release.
Although Lasquetty does not specify the details in his statement, the Ministry of Education has confirmed to Newtral.es that the Minister of Economy was referring to these educational centers in his speech during last Wednesday’s press conference. In addition, he has specified that, of the 156 million euros for educational infrastructure, the European Union contributes 38.5 million euros destined for “the purchase of computer equipment”.
Summary
The Minister of Economy of the Community of Madrid assures that the investments of the Autonomous Government have been responsible for the construction of the Zendal Hospital, the extension of Metro line 3, the reform of the October 12 Hospital and the construction of 30 educational centers. Three of the four Lasquetty examples are false, since these investments have been made with extraordinary funds that are not part of the autonomy.
Therefore, we take Lasquetty’s full statement to be misleading.
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